


Kingdoms

by Definitisied



Category: Sander Sides, Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders
Genre: Alternate Universe Fantasy, Angst, Eventual Romance, Fantasy, Fantasy AU, Feudalism, Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Murder, Scholar, Slow Burn, complex economic systems, monarchs, mythical creatures, rap battle, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-02 06:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16781692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Definitisied/pseuds/Definitisied
Summary: The story of a prince far from home, and a king finding solace in an unlikely ally.





	1. Chapter 1

“Alone.  
Humans, alone, small and fragile. Dumb to the truth of the universe, and yet they still try to desperately grasp at the hope of something bigger than them putting all the pieces of fate in order. They desperately search for meaning in nothing, and with their endless cacophony of words manage to achieve something.   
Something out of nothing.   
Love out of abuse.  
Anguish out of beauty  
Triumph against all the odds.  
Humans.  
So much simpler and yet so much greater.   
All they have is themselves, they make great indestructible towers of steel and glass. Machines capable of the impossible, creating and destroying in a constant cycle of life and death.  
Together, as one, they wield a blade of chaos through the infinite sky of possibilities and make something amazing.  
But still they are small and stupid, and they will feel the burn as I crush them under the power of possibilities”  
The actor threw a lit prop match onto a piece of paper as he finished. The curtains drew as the crowd stood to clap and cheer for one final ovation. As the actors were coated in praises and applause, a rain of roses fell over them to signal the end of the play.

Hoards of people filed out through the extravagant theatre doors. Lavishly dressed ladies in diamond encrusted dresses and men wearing tuxedos made of only the finest cloth filled the red and gold hallways. One young man sat on a couch in the oversized lobby, swinging his legs back and forth so as to hit the marble tiles bellow. He ignored his parents, standing a well way away somewhere in the crowd, talking about the latest pointless gossip.

His hair was dyed a red fitting of any royal, and his eyes were filled with an innocent curiosity. His mind was far somewhere away from the rich lobby, somewhere much more wondrous. A place, though a figment of the boys imagination, much more real than the room he sat in. 

That morning he had been stuffed into a stiff white suit, with a fancy red sash that meant they were going somewhere proper, but anywhere the prince went had to be proper, so the multiple copies of the bright red sash were worn nearly always. His parents only interacted with the other human nobles, so it would no doubt be another meeting or party filled with mini croissants and far too sweet tarts and meringues. But instead he was met with the delight of something quite new to him: a theatre.

It was something new and exciting, and he thoroughly enjoyed every second of the thought provoking play. The emotion, the act, it was all fake. But it didn’t pretend to be fake, the world it was set in was a mess and it displayed that as proudly as a male peacock unsheathing it’s tail of feathery beauty.

He would’ve loved to be an actor, but like everything else he wanted, he would not get it. 

For despite his family’s wealth and status, Roman, the young prince, was poor.

Financially he had everything he could ever need to live an above average life. Most would say he had everything one might need in life.

But for Roman, that was much further from the truth. 

Forced to study in his room for hours on end, sleep was from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM every day. There were no calendars, only clocks. There was no way to track the days, they didn’t have names. He was let out everyday from 8:00 AM to 12:AM, it would be a designated activity with which he would most likely to be following behind his parents the entire time and attempting to look presentable in front of the nobles. Meal times were at the same time every day. Usually a generic meal that was passed through a slot on the bottom of his bedroom door.

He had never held a proper conversation with his parents, he had no friends, no one in the lonely room of the lavish castle. It was a lonely, repetitive existence, sometimes he wished the windows were not blocked so he could walk out onto a balcony and stare at the horizon. But the windows were taped closed carefully with cloth, the King had said it was necessary to protect him.

He was poor, he had no friendships in his bank account. The most he said in a week would be a few hello and thank you’s to various nobles and maids.

He wanted more.

And well, what you wish for you just might get. 

Two nights after going to the theatre and having Romans imagination sparked with new and wondrous thoughts, as the growing boy sat in his room completing sums and letting his mind wander off into thoughts of fantasy. A storm of monstrous proportions was ravaging the world outside, thunder was a constant rumble that kept him on his toes, the lightning flashes were not visible from his boarded window but the rain that poured down sounded like death itself. It was as though the land was drowning itself in anguish.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts was a loud scream that echoed through the castle, preceded by the bang of the large castle doors. The scream sent a vicious chill up his spine, and his frantic pen writing stopped abruptly. He placed the pen carefully down as he heard yelling and screaming get closer to the door. His heart raced, could it be? Someone had broken in? The potential, although terrifying as it sounded from the scream, was just enough to make him get out of his chair.


	2. Chapter 2

Logically, he was hoping that the locked metal door would be enough to keep whoever it was out, but in his heart he wanted for something new and exciting to barge through the door and whisk him away to somewhere new. Somewhere where he could be rich.

Today his wishing was on a lucky streak, as the door slammed down and off its hinges. A creature cloaked in a style of clothing he had never seen before stood before him, surrounded by other larger creatures with also unfamiliar clothing.

The creature looked quite human at first, but the large goat like horns and dark lizard tail sweeping back and forth behind it indicated otherwise. It reminded him of crude illustrations of creatures he’d never seen in real life, only on the pages of hundred year old biology textbooks. The clothing of the smaller figure could only be described as something completely foreign to him.  
A long piece of faded black cloth hung from around the creatures neck, almost like a necklace with a large piece of tattered fabric attached. It was odd to say the least, later he would learn it was simply a cape and hood. The rest of the creatures body was covered from neck-to-toe in a skin tight suit made of something dark and shiny. A misty pattern of purple seemed to creep itself around the creatures left leg and across the torso, almost having a mind of its own as it curled itself up around the creatures shoulder. The creatures hands had on gloves, but the tips were cut off. An odd choice, but Roman could go for it he supposed. Now that he looked closer he realised the fingers nails looked more like curved black claws than nails, adding to the in-humanness of this creature.

The figures standing around this intriguing creature were completely covered in the skin tight black suit, no fabric-necklace-thing to be seen. Although, they all shared the same black lizard tail and horns, all varying in size and shape.

But what intrigued him the most, and left his face stuck in a star struck expression, was the face of this new, exciting and also incredibly dangerous creature.

The two most beautifully purple eyes stared back at him. A light lavender seeping through deep crevices of dark violet and rippling lilac, they radiated danger and an edge of adventure that Roman had never seen in any other eyes but his own. Roman had started referring to the creature as a ‘he’ in his head for some peculiar reason, but it felt right. Sharp black stripes stretched from under his eyes to the edge of the cheeks, ending in sharp curves. His skin was worryingly pale, similar to that of the nobles that stayed inside all day and lounged in couches to display that they would never have to work. This was of course the case for nearly everyone Roman had ever come in contact with, but pale skin looked quite unnatural next to the contrasting black of his aesthetic. 

The odd goat horns he had spotted before were poking out of messy head of dark violet hair, almost perfectly accompanying his eyes. Yes, he was truly an admirable sight to behold.

All of these thoughts and more ran through the young princes head as he was punched in the jaw sending him against the back wall of his room.

It wasn’t enough to knock Roman out, but it served in its purpose to make him easier to carry. One of the larger creatures picked the dazed prince up with ease, leaning him over his shoulder. His foggy mind was just awake enough to absorb the scene he saw at the castle doors as they prepared to open the doors a second time.

The upside down of image of King and Queen, drenched in a pool of their own blood greeted him. Although it was hard to tell if they really were the king and queen, as their faces had been stabbed over and over again, leaving in the place of once dignified royal expressions a mess of flesh, blood and bone. Their lavish clothes ruined to shreds in piles beside them. The only reason Roman even recognise them as his parents were there prominent hairstyles. The Queen, with a lavish grey updo reminiscent of a fancier version of lower noble woman’s hair, and the King, with chestnut hair slicked back in a familiar style to his own. Although, their hair was still wet with their blood, so even that was hard to tell. 

He didn’t know if he felt any sadness for them, thinking as the doors closed behind them and the corpses disappeared from view. Despite having hated them so, he somehow didn’t think they deserved to die like this. It seemed inhuman, monstrous.

But then again, these creatures were monsters.

The days adventures came to a close as the creature holding him threw his weak body into the air, and smacked him against the ground with its long and spiky tail. This final blow to his dazed head knocked him out completely.

He would awake many hours later in slightly better weather, although the weather made no difference to where he was stuck. Rough rope shackled his arms behind his back, restricting him to free movement only in his legs. It appeared he was stuck in a cage of some sort, being pulled along by a horse far bigger than any he had seen before. It galloped with a purpose, each stride a monument to its pure power. Even through the bars he could see the horses muscle ripple under its glossy coat. This horse, despite looking roughed up and worn, gave off a sense of regál that beat any pristine horse he had seen while out with his parents on the streets of the city. The rider that sat upon it was another of the black clad figures from before, there was little to tell about him as he was almost an exact copy of all the others.

Looking further ahead, he snapped out of his spellbound stupor of looking at the horse and noticed the absolutely gigantic hoard of steeds and their riders before him. It seemed that the army, which was really the only proper name for a group of this size, stretched even further than the horizon. Many had carts that banged and clattered with the sounds of prized goods, others had many livestock sticking their heads out of the back, the scariest of all were the larger horses clad in spiked army and holding riders equipped with blades of death. It was truly a sight to behold.

It was also a sight that filled him with terror, an army of this size could take out an entire kingdom in one instant. As the memories of what had happened hours ago finally hit him, he realised this army had indeed taken out an entire kingdom.

His.

Conflicted, with so many emotions coming at him at once, he didn’t know what to do. But as the horse continued its gallop, and the sun high above lowered itself below the horizon as if hiding in terror, he decided he would wait. He had to stay strong, for how long he didn’t know, but alas there was not much choice in a situation of this proportion.

It was past many empty fields and rocky outcrops that they finally reached a castle. Although, the name of castle did not do it justice. 

The sharp spikes of the building reaching high than the clouds, it’s frontgate spanning the entire width of his own ex-castle. It seemed a recurring theme that despite these peoples small stature, everything they had power over was beyond reasonable proportions.

The hoard raced through the gates, parting into many sections as they headed through various tunnels that stretched onwards through a web of tunnels. The tunnels were made of a combination of dirt, mud, and stone. Dimly lit with the amber light of torches hanging on rusty chains high above them. The particular path they were moving down ran out of light quickly, he couldn’t see anything but the void staring back at him. It continued to get colder and damper as they continued, he could feel the path getting steeper and steeper.

Suddenly, and with a jolt, the horse stopped, letting out a neigh that echoed through whatever room they had found themselves in. He heard loud yelling and the sound of soft skin against smooth stone. All was revealed as he watched the void be ripped through by a lit torch that seemed to stretch high above, lighting the large cavern he now realised he was in. Stalactites hung from the ceiling above and the small piercing eyes of bats stared back at him in large groups.

He looked to see the creature who had been riding the horse get off and walk around to his cage. It fiddled with something for a moment and then suddenly one of the cages sides swung open. He stared back at the elusive creature, it ushered him to turn around, and so he wiggles around to an angle were the creature could untie his arms.

Whatever the creature was, it began to speak in a low neutral tone. “Hello Prince, I will be escorting you to the throne room were the King will be negotiating with you. If you don’t fight, things will go well for you, if not, then I pity you” it signaled for him to get out of the cage. He dropped down from the cage and decided against his better judgement to follow the creature. It was only a quick trip until a doorway shaped light he had seen in the distance appeared to in fact be a doorway.

He trudged through the doorway, entering the regal stone palace. Crystals radiating a dim purple light scattered the stone rooms walls, the largest occupying itself as a throne. Upon it sat the mystically breathtaking man he had first spotted breaking down his door. Of course, these villainous creatures having murdered his parents were obviously ill mannered and should not be trusted. He would have to tread lightly with what he said, despite how much he wanted to rush up to the throne and in a daring act of revenge slit the devil's throat right then and there. No, he had to act rationally and head the creatures warning of pity.

The creature who had brought him here turned to the King and began to announce in the most polite of tones: “My Majesty King Virgil, I present to you, Roman, High Prince of The now claimed Earth Kingdom”

Virgil, huh? It was an exotic name, not something he’d heard before. 

He was trying very hard to stop himself from crying, or stabbing someone, or both. Now that he was less drowsy and in a fully lit room his brain was functional enough to have a mental breakdown. Unlucky for him, the throne room of the enemy kingdom that killed his parents and took his kingdom wasn’t entirely the ideal place to have a breakdown. He suppose he would just wait until he wasn’t in front of the person who killed his parents.

As it turns out, trying to hold back a break down turned out to make him act really awkward, and really stupid. Which is why one of the dumbest, and only, things he’d ever said, just sort of, ‘happened’.  
“Soooooooo, any reason you just happened to kidnap me, or was it the whole ‘being a prince of an entire kingdom thing’?” he drawled out his words, slightly slurring some parts together. What could he say, he had basically no conversational experience up to this point.

Talking to the illustrations of animals and people in his books didn’t count, sadly.

Ignoring his questionable sanity, Roman instead seemed to register what he had just said, and immediately regretted existing even more than usual. The creature beside him seemed to stare at him like he was going to disappear, and so took a step back.

Staring back up at the King to meet his fate, he was instead incredible surprised for his awkward inexperienced conversation skills to be met by a small chuckle and a genuine smile.  
“Hahaha oh my, your sarcasm and terribly anxious demeanour makes me feel like I’m looking in a mirror” one second he looked like a terrifying creature of death and regality, the next he just looked like a small, anxious little kid with a snarky attitude problem. Virgil rested his head in his clawed hands, ever awaiting the young Princes comeback.

“Well it seems to me, Dark and stormy night, that the only mirror you’d be able to use is one without a silver backing” he thought he might be getting the hang of it, snarking back. Although his face fell as he looked up to see the King’s face scrunched in confusion. It took a few moments of him staring at nothing for Virgil to finally respond.  
“Did- did you just call me a vampire?” A tiny fanged smile seemed to grow on the King’s face as he spoke. It seemed that he liked it. 

“I believe I did, I was the one that said it, was I not your edgy majesty?” He knew he was on a fine line making banter with an all powerful king, and it was indeed a little odd that the king seemed to act like his age more than anything, but it was almost a relief that it wasn’t going to be formal speaking he barely understood if he was going to be stuck here for a long while.

Why was he making banter with his parents murderers, he was such an idiot sometimes he couldn’t believe himself. Gods, why couldn’t he just shut up with his stupid banter and get it through his thick head that he was in a genuinely dangerous situation not practicing language with flashcards by himself on a humid afternoon.

But before he could dig himself into an even deeper hole, the King spoke up.  
“You know what? Ridga when your arranging next week's hunting trip can you make sure the prin- I mean can you make sure Roman comes along too? He seems like he’d be much better company than those stuck up twats we call nobles” he didn’t know whether he should comment on whether that was a compliment or how he could relate to the stuck up twat nobles comment, so he decided on neither and kept shut.

Instead, he smiled as best as you can when your emotionally hurt, lacking a proper sleep cycle, and you’ve just lost everything you’ve ever known to something new and terrifying.

Ridga seemed to nod his head in acknowledgement, and, decided it may be best to cut the conversation short.  
“Well this has been lovely, but I really should get dear Roman here to his first tutoring session, if you don’t mind that is, my Majesty?”

“No not at all, go ahead, he has to learn more than whatever sheltered and outdated info he was provided with when stuck with those fools” and yet again Romans anxiety jumped right back into the picture. Of course he knew his kingdom was outdated and sheltered, but he didn’t believe it was as bad as to be called fools.

The creature, who he now knew as Ridga, walked out into another doorway he hadn’t spotted before. And so, like an obedient dog, he followed behind.


	3. Chapter 3

Roman, suspecting some elderly wizard or something to be a scholar, prepared himself to have to listen to a slow old man for who knows how long.

Instead, through yet another doorway, he was greeted by an extremely tall beast of a man. With elegantly curved horns, a pair of majestic angel-like wings, and a large, lion-like tail swishing its way around his legs, and cold blue eyes staring down at him he was shocked, to say the least. Not to mention, a body covered in dull grey scales and a mop of flamboyantly blue colored hair combed back neatly, almost fitting the nerd like persona the scholar's thick-rimmed glasses seemed to give off. A face of confusion seemed to grow on who he supposed was the scholar's face, leaning down to make direct eye contact with him.   
“Ridga, you can go” the scholar's voice was scary smooth, revealing an entire mouth of shark-like teeth as he spoke, never breaking eye contact with the now paralyzed Roman as he addressed the guard. Ridga walked back out, leaving Roman defenseless, not that he was being defended before anyway.

“Uh, may I ask who you are?” he forced an awkward smile onto his face as his hands raised into finger guns, voice shaking at the sight of whatever the hell this scholar was. The scholar leaned back into an upright position, keeping his calm composer, and began to raise one of his clawed hands out. It appeared the large man was attempting to force his hands into the same finger gun shape. What instead happened to his hands was a slightly off version of a finger gun. The ex-prince stared in confusion, slowly lowering his finger guns as his face scrunched up to stare in pure confusion. “I’m sorry, but what?” He hopes to whatever damned god was listening that the scholar doing whatever the hell that was had a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“Apologies, I was simply attempting to mimic your greeting gesture to make you feel more at home, per se. I hoped not to offend, but simply wished to help better understand” the tension was thick and had Roman cringing as the scholar bowed, god was this awkward as fuck.  
“No sir it’s cool, it’s cool, a little weird, but cool. Uuhh seriously though, what’s your name?” oh god he wanted to just disappear into the ground so bad, he wished that he had more conversation experience.  
“Apologies, yet again, my full name is Logan Resbin Hentelia, but you can just call me Logan. I’ll be your teacher and cater figure for the near future. I do hope we become better acquainted with each other as time goes on” Logan, as he said, bowed slightly, looking back up at Roman for some source of approval from his new student. “And I assume you are Roman, yes?” 

“That would be correct my fellow new-friend” he attempted to smile at Logan, hoping it wouldn’t come off as too forced. The scholar before him looked slightly skeptical of the expression but didn’t comment.  
“Well, if you’ll follow me into my office I suppose we can get started. I’ll be teaching you some basic history as requested by the king, and hopefully, we can do a bit of bonding once Patton shows”  
Logan began to walk out of the room, long claws clicked against the stone floor, Roman following after him.  
“Who’s Patton?”   
“You’ll meet him… later. Not to worry!” now that they were heading towards the office the talk of tutoring him seemed to have the scholar bounding for joy. 

He walked through yet another doorway into the warm light of a study. A dim yellow light bulb flickered above, walls lined with books and trinkets, shining trophies and shortened pencils from years of use. A small desk with a large and lit lamp sat in the middle, three lounge-like chairs sat around it. The room was inviting and warm, the opposite of the castle halls he had known all his life. Immediately, like a small child, he ran over to one of the chairs and jumped to sit in it, the seat cushion bouncing under the momentum. “Well, I’m glad you like it” Logan commented from the other chair.   
“It’s definitely a step up from a cage, I’ll give it to you”  
His words had Logan’s slight smirk devolving into a small frown.  
“Ahh, yes. I am… sorry for the treatment you received on your transport here. I suppose before I give you a rundown of why you were captured you would like an explanation of your kingdoms entire purpose and our plan of takeover?” Roman, not knowing how to respond properly to the sudden change in tone, simply nodded his head.

“ I suppose I’ll start by saying that although I am sincere in my emotions, not everyone here holds such a degree of truth. The king, although awkward and seemingly childish, is not one to be messed with. He is both emotionally and physically unpredictable, after-“ Logan stops to cough, although the slight tears at the edge of his eyes indicate otherwise “after the past King and Queen died, he went on a bit of rampage. Due to certain circumstances, he was the only one left to ascend to the throne. It may have been years but he still grieves, having to become king at such a young age supposedly… stunted, his emotional growth. I advise you to be careful around him when he gets into an emotional high, to avoid being set alight” the scholar took a deep shaky breath, Roman raising his eyebrow at the last sentence. “Apologies for my emotional distress, usually I am much more collected but talking about past events as significant as the past kingdom's leaders passing seems to have brought up an emotional vulnerability in me” the scholar stops to take a deep breath. 

“Now, the reason for your capture”  
“Go on?” Roman attempted to encourage him to move on from the dreary topic to the slightly less dreary topic.  
“The King's interest in your ex-kingdom sparked from its size and exports, yours was the second largest, next to ourselves of course. The Earth Kingdom was the largest supplier of agricultural goods, but your outer reaches were poor and weak, it only took a few to create an uproar and soon a rebellion for equal rights was formed. I suppose you would know of that, yes?” the scholar looked up for approval to move on, instead he was perplexed when instead he was met by a face of confusion. “You do know that at the time of our takeover your kingdom was barely staying together, yes?” he stared, and then stared some more as the young ex-princes face scrunched up into a scowl.

“Of course I knew” Roman spat out dryly, it came out a bit awkward sounding from inexperience, he was trying something new, okay? It’s not like he had much experience in the whole conversation department, but the tone felt weird, not really fitting of him at all.  
“Well, I’m hoping I’m interpreting this correctly as sarcasm, but that’s actually quite appalling. Suppose I’m glad we haven’t tried to interrogate you then. With how little you know about your kingdoms disputes you’d probably be dead already” Romans face paled at the comment. “Ah that’s no need for alarm, I assure you that as long as you're here you won’t meet that fate” Logan reached out to the ex-prince across from him, hoping his awkward smile was enough to reassure him.   
“It’s okay, don’t worry for me” Roman replied in an equally awkward tone.

“Continuing along then. We used the quickly advancing rebellion to our advantage, sneaking thousands of soldiers through the crowds near the castle was easy with such a large rise of varied people protesting in various ways. You could be caught climbing the castle and no one would think less of you because everyone had already seen 10 other rebels trying to climb it. It wasn’t long before we got close enough to rush your castle to the ground. The other kingdoms don’t even know we did it, they just assumed it was the rebellions doing” Logan’s passion for tactical planning seemed to show as he spoke of the plans in an odd glee. Suddenly the scholar seemed to fit well within the castles various tunnels and among the ranks of bloodthirsty warriors, he was just as much of a monster as the rest of them, with such a passion for planning who gets to live and who gets to die. 

Roman squinted slightly, questioning whether he should run for it and then thinking on whether that would end up with a certain devious scholar sinking his claws into his back. He was gonna go with no then.  
“So, you're a battle planner?” he hoped he didn’t come off as skittish to the now significantly more intimidating man before him.  
“That’s the basis of the job description, I also help with the restoration and organization of the castles vast archive and provide insight as a historian and teacher. My family has been doing this job for centuries, in fact, my father taught the king himself when he was only a child. Unfortunately, I was a teen at the time, so I was still studying myself” the scholar paused to scratch the back of his head in another attempt to get Roman to settle comfortably. “Now that our whole plan has been explained, I’ll give you a rundown of why we kept you alive. Basically, your official position, of which I’m not sure you’ve been informed of, was considered Prince of the Earth Kingdom and head of preserving knowledge. Meaning it was under your guidance to collate as much information as possible mentally in case the archives of the kingdom were damaged beyond what could be repaired. An odd method of preserving info, but the Earth Kingdom wasn't exactly known for its advancements. With the destruction of your castle with it went your archives, and so we had to find a scholar of sorts that would have the knowledge of efficient agricultural production. You were our best bet, so once you have finished your schooling you will be employed over our own department of Agriculture in order to put us ahead of the competition in terms of quality and production speed. Now that your kingdom has fallen the rest of the Kingdoms will have to find somewhere else to get their food from, that's where we come in. This significantly increases our economy while also providing jobs, increasing civilian morale and strengthening our kingdoms loyalty to the crown. The death of your parents and your home was simply tactically motivated, I hope this clears up some things?” Logan had just dropped quite the truckload of information upon Roman. 

The young ex-prince sat contemplating for a long time, fidgeting and rocking back and forth. Logically he knew this all made sense, but he was mostly emotionally driven and emotionally he was feeling quite distressed. Having to hold back tears in frustration of his parents dying over a dam increase in economic value, was the world really this shallow? He didn’t even know who he was yet, all he knew was that he enjoyed being creative and that somehow all his education up to this point had really just been him being used as a human library.


	4. Chapter 4

Suddenly through the door bounced in a shape draped in grey and blue robes, a hood concealing the figures face.   
“Logan!” squealed the figure as it jumped on the scholar, pushing Logan onto the floor as the hooded figure sat on his legs. Roman stood up in alarm to look over the desk, seeing a most peculiar picture.

The cloaked figures hood was off, revealing a man with a wide fanged smile and a face covered in blue freckles. The man's eyes opened from their squints of joy to reveal a pair of enchantingly green eyes staring down at Logan, almost overshadowing the gills on the man's neck or his twitching fin-like ears in levels of peculiarity. He had a soft mop of brown hair that seemed to wisp around like it was underwater, he was truly a peculiar sight of a man. Logan’s grey face was blushing an almost black, laying stiff and flat underneath the lively ball of energy that had just attacked him affectionately.  
“Roman, this is the Patton I talked about earlier” Logan called out from his spot on the floor.

Patton shot up to look at him, eyes widening and smile increasing somehow as he observed Roman, stepping on Logan’s leg and making him cringe from the floor below. Before Roman knew what to say Patton was letting out a loud squeal.  
“EEEEEEEEEEEOHMYGOSHITSREALLYYOU!” The squealing fish man thing, while squealing at an unintelligible rate, had already come around the desk and was hugging him so tightly he was finding it hard to breathe. This level of affection was not something Roman had encountered before, and so he found himself inclined to simply pat Patton on the head while he was being squeezed to death.

Patton, after some quality hugging, let go and took a step back, looking Roman up and down in his dirty and slightly damaged princely outfit from a kingdom that didn’t even exist anymore. The fishy ball of energy seemed to ponder on it for a moment and then began to introduce himself.  
“Nice to meet you, Roman! I’m Patton, as Logan said, I’m the kingdoms head tailor and also part-time Dad, if you need any emotional support I’ll be happy to help you out with a few of my Patton-ted dad jokes” at that last terrible joke, Patton's grin became ever so cheesy. “You get it? Patented equals Patton-ted?” the man put his webbed hands in an awkward, jazz hand like fashion. Roman simply stared, before letting a slightly giggle rise from his throat.  
“That is so… dumb, but your creativity is to be admired, it wasn’t too Romano cheesy at all” at first Patton's cheesy grin just sort of sat there, but as the words ‘romano cheesy’ came out of Romans mouth the odd fish mans eyes began to sparkle and the smile became smaller, but somehow much more genuine in its manner. He started to clap his hands in a short moment of pure joy and excitement.  
“Oh, we are going to along swellingly! One thing though my princely kiddo, we really need to get you some new clothes, those rags simply won’t do!” Romans face scrunched up in a childlike manner at the rag comment, the now parental and somehow familiar figure had comforted him to levels of openness that he had never really experienced before, but somehow this interaction felt right.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but perhaps we should be heading off to lunch now? Today is the monthly bard duel competition that the soldiers like to put together for a bit of fun, it would be most amusing to watch it in action and perhaps participate. Roman also needs to eat something and I was so busy revising this morning I didn’t have time to get breakfast” in the time the pair had been bonding Logan had gotten up from the floor and was now sitting as refined as ever in his chair, one eyebrow raised as he stared at the two of them.   
“Logan! Look after yourself please, skipping breakfast isn’t healthy!” Patton grumbled as he prepared to walk out the door, dragging Roman along with him. Logan tiredly pushed out his chair and followed after the father and grumbling man-child.

It was not long before through the torch lit twists and turns of the castle that they arrived into a large stone hall, filled with lengthy wooden tables and large crowds of varying races of many shapes and sizes all talking and laughing together. There was a slightly smaller wooden table close to a stage at the end of the hall, of which no one was sitting at. As they sat down at the table, Roman took a moment to observe the different species. 

There was a creature with a large snakehead but lizard body, another was a small pixie looking girl that started yelling at her friend and grew six feet tall, one of the most intriguing of the lot was a man sitting in the dark at the edge of the hall with one side of his face human and the other covered in scales with a singular glowing yellow eye. Romans attention was brought back to the table when Patton tapped his shoulder. “They'll be handing out lunch now and then the bard duel will start” Roman raised his eyebrow as no food or chefs could be seen coming in. 

Before Roman knew what was happening, the loud ring of a bell sounded throughout the room and the entire hall went silent, everyone scrambling to a seat. Roman watched in wonder as the roof appeared to open, and down came a rain of glowing gold figures, all holding mountains of food in different colors and variations. One of the floating golden figures holding three plates approached their table, gracefully placing the food down. In front of Logan was a plate with toast absolutely slathered with margarine, the scholar's eyes lit up as a cup of coffee was placed beside it. In front of Patton, a plate of mac and cheese along with a cup of what Roman assumed was some type of sweet red juice was placed, the fish man digging in almost immediately. In front of Roman was placed a plate of… cookies? It brought up fading memories of sneaking into the royal kitchen when he was small and stealing some of the freshly baked cookies from the large bench. No one had ever made a comment of it, simply allowing the small prince to get away with it as they knew of the restrictions he was under and felt pity for the young boy. And beside it, a glass of water. “Oooh, cookies!” Patton stared over at his plate.   
“Quick question, why did I get this dish?” Roman was slightly confused why he was being served food from his childhood.  
“The fairies of the castle can figure out your favorite foods and then conjure them from nothing, that just means that cookies are one of your favorites!” Patto responded in a cheery tone, but it got Roman thinking.  
“If your kingdom can just conjure food from nothing but only for certain people, is that why you could take the risk of destroying the worlds main source of agricultural products?” he looked at Logan for confirmation.  
“That is precisely the reason, we have fairies for many other purposes also including products you would usually get from agriculture so we are fairly well off. This service is provided to everyone in the kingdom, not just the guards. We are smart with how we plan our tactics, I would know, I’m the plan-” Logans monologue was cut short by the lighting being shut off and a spotlight being projected onto the stage. 

“Welcome to this month's Bard Duel!” a darkly cloaked figure called from the stage. “Who will be our competitors today? Any volunteers?” there was loud music playing, people were cheering and many had their hands raised frantically. Spotlights of various colors flashed sporadically over the room as the music continued to grow in pace.


	5. Chapter 5

The cloaked figure moved its gloved pointed figure around the room, but before Roman knew what was happening the finger was being pointed at him. “Rise Roman! Prepare yourself for this test of wits against…” the figure paused as a spotlight moved to look at Roman, then he continued his over the top announcements. “Logan! The kingdoms best scholar will be facing down against an ex-prince, who will win?” as the darkly cloaked figure spoke he encouraged them to come up on stage. The figure held out his gloved hand to help them up greeting them both quietly. “Sup Logan! Nice to meet you Roman, the names Thomas, I can’t wait to be working with you soon!” Thomas raised his voice again so the audience could hear him. “And good luck!” A new beat began rising against the previous music. 

Roman could do this, it was just freestyle rhyming, how hard could it be? Right?  
“BEGIN!” Thomas yelled, and then it was all or nothing.

Roman took a deep breath and started to rap.  
“Ladies, lords and non-binary royalty, watch me as I beat this geek, and do it joyously! I’ll vanquish any villain with the gall to try to toy with me!” some in the audience snickered at the last line, him being kidnapped by an enemy kingdom and all. “Ask the dragon-witch, she knows the drill, you're screwed royally!” Patton cheered at the pun. Everyone waited eagerly for the usually calm scholar's reply.  
“Stricken with clairvoyance, events occurred as I’d foreseen, your verse was weak! Your rapping stinks, flamboyantly!” no one but Logan had foreseen how good at this he would be. “Employing these, trisyllabic rhymes, phssh! I can match that easily! I’ll beat you every time so you do not want beef with me, Princey!” Roman took a step back from the aggressively rapping scholar. Because just like, holy shit man. “I drown out lesser emcees when I flow- there's no avoiding me! Under pressure, I rise up- holler at your buoyancy!”  
“WOO!” Patton hollered from their table, excitement growing as his ear fins flapped frantically.  
“Diadems are worn on Capita, I had this battle on lock like Attica! You’re through, go home Princey back-it-up! I claimed to be the better bard, and I backed it up!” as Logan finished, the entire audience cheered as Thomas, having pulled his hood down to reveal the first normal human face Roman had seen here, held Logan's hand up.   
“We have a winner! Logan, the best scholar in all the kingdom and this months best battle bard!” the audience started cheering Logan's name, the scholar blushing from all the attention. 

After all the hullabaloo had quieted down and they’d finished lunch they headed back to Logan’s office so he could get the map for Roman so he could find his way around the labyrinth of a castle. Roman and Patton had just taken a seat when a flash appeared in the doorway. The king had somehow found himself casually leaning against the doorway, a wide, almost devious, grin resting on his face. 

Virgil was still wearing his flamboyant cape, but instead of his skin-tight suit that made him look like he was out of a movie, he wore a much more casual black shirt and a pair of skinny jeans and sneakers. Somehow it made his small figure look intimidating in an edgy kind of way. He laughed huskily, lazily strolling towards Logan at the back of the room, the scholar not facing the king. The king's steps were as silent as a predator stalking its prey, which was quite the accurate metaphor. He got as close as he could to logan without stepping on the man’s heels, leaned his head towards Logan's shoulder, and said one word:  
“Boo” 

Almost immediately the scholar whipped around, large wings spreading across the length of the room as his pupils dilated in panic. It took a few seconds for him to register that it had just been the king. “Sup Log” Virgil was leaning against the desk, raising his hand in a gestural manner towards the disturbed Logan.  
“Greetings your majesty, what brings you to my humble part of the castle?” Logan stood stiff as he spoke, arms pinned to his side and wings immediately retracting inwards.  
“Chill out egg head, and I thought I was anxious. I was just coming to congratulate on the bard duel, don’t ask how I saw it I always get Thomas to record it for me” the king pushed himself up and onto the desk, resting his head on hands as he lounged.   
“Of course your majesty, thank you for your congratulations” Logan did not relax, even as Virgil swiveled around on the desk, leaning forward and cross-legged to stare at the others in the room. 

Patton's eyes seemed to light up as the king turned to address him.  
“Hey, kiddo! It's great to see you again!” Patton seemed to bounce with joy in his seat as he spoke.  
“Sup Pat” Virgil raised finger guns towards Patton, making a slight clicking noise as he did so. Then, he turned to the only person in the room who hadn’t been addressed: Roman.

“Hey, the new guy, Roman if I remember correctly, we’re still on for the hunting trip yeah?” Roman, trying to play it off cooly, replied.  
“Yeah, I mean, I don't really have a choice do I?” he probably shouldn't have said that. Virgil's face fell into a frown, but he didn’t comment on it.

“Well, I'll see you all around later, bye!” the king waved as he leaned back from the doorway, disappearing into the tunnels.


End file.
